Stew and Homemade Rolls

These rolls won a red ribbon at the 2012 Tillamook County Fair!  The texture for some reason didn't turn out like the normally do.
These rolls. I love these rolls! It seems my mom made them every Sunday that I can remember for Sunday dinner. Maybe not every Sunday - but it sure seemed that's when we ate them. We have them at family reunions on her side of the family. Dinner is just not complete if we don't have mom's rolls. They are very light and fluffy and I dare you to eat just one.

Mom’s Rolls
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 TBSP yeast
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6-7 cups flour
Dissolve sugar and salt in water. Add yeast. Let rest 10 minutes. Add egg and oil. Add flour. Make a smooth but elastic dough. Let rise until double (about an hour). Shape into rolls. Let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Brush tops with butter.
Yield: 24 rolls
(This recipe can be halved. If you do that still use 1 egg.)
Stew.
You are probably thinking this is a beef stew. Well - it's a good guess but not correct. Remember the part of the deer I had to butcher the other day? Well today I seared about 2 cups of venison cubes in hot oil and 1/4 cup flour. While the meat was browning I mixed 1 package of brown gravy mix, 1 package of onion soup mix and 1/4 cup flour in a bowl. I sprayed my crockpot with veggie spray and added the meat. I added 2 cups water to the gravy/soup mix and mixed well. I poured that over the meat. I added 1/2 chopped onion, 2 carrots peeled and sliced, 2 celery stalks sliced and 2 cups diced potatoes. (I used one of the pint jars of potatoes that I canned last month.) I let all this goodness cook on low for about 6 hours. I tell you what. Russell thought I made the stew with beef. The deer meat was that good! I am so glad because I was a little apprehensive of eating it myself. My parents used to disguise venision in a handful of different ways and we always knew something was up. The meat just tasted "funny." There were hardly any leftovers - which Russell wants to take to work tomorrow for lunch.

Bread

A lot of people find the fact that I make our own bread intimidating. I hope to disspell the "intimidating" part with play by play pictures of how I make bread. I used to make it by hand. I liked (and still like) the feel of working with dough. However - I have some issues with my hands (lack of strength) that I moved on to this mixer my sister sent me. It is a Bosch Univeral Plus 800 watt mixer. Perfect for our family's needs. Thanks Lynda!

Bread
I make 4 loaves at a time - so decrease by 1/2 or 1/4's to suit your family's needs.
4 TBSP yeast
1 1/2 TBSP salt
4 TBSP vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup sugar
**I like to add 4 TBSP powdered buttermilk sometimes too
3 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (yes - I do grind my own wheat)
4 cups hot water

Add all of the ingredients in the mixer. Cover with the lid and let it sit for about 45 minutes. This is called "sponging." It is highly recommended when working with wheat/yeast products together.

After 45 minutes - your dough should look like this. Increased in volume a lot and very bubbly....
Add: 4 TBSP vegetable oil and start adding white flour (you will end up using 9-10 cups or so).

The dough will start getting thick. It's almost ready here. It's still sticky so I added more flour.
You know the dough is ready with there isn't any left on the sides of the bowl and the dough is soft to the touch without being sticky.
Transfer to a large bowl sprayed with vegetable oil. Turn dough once. I like to set my bowl on the stove top. The overhead light provides the perfect temperature.

Cover the bowl with your favorite towel. Leave it for about 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes this is what your dough will look like.
It is ready because the poked finger indentations stay put.
Tip bowl over and roll out dough onto countertop. It looks like a big blob.
Knead a bit with your hands to roll into a sausage shape.

Using a knife - cut dough down the middle.
Now again to create 4 equal sections.
Take one of the sections.
Knead it a little and shape into a bread loaf.
Place in greased bread pan. Repeat for other dough sections.

Set bread loaves back on stove top to rise again. This time for 20 minutes.
Once again - cover with your most favorite towel. This is an important step. That way - when you look over at the dough rising - it brings happy memories. :) While your bread loaves are rising - turn your oven on to 400 degrees. This way it will be ready to use when your dough is done rising. After 20 minutes - maybe a little longer - I got sidetracked this morning... your loaves will look like this. Place bread loaves in oven and bake for 30 minutes exactly.

After 30 minutes - your bread will look like this.

Remove from the pans immediately and cool on a wire rack. And of course if you live in close proximity to your neighbors - make in the morning and open all the windows of your house/apartment so everyone can smell the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread. And you don't have to share. Unless you really want to.

When my bread is cooled off - I place in bread bags. I keep two on the counter and freeze the other two. If you have kids like mine - you will have to repeat this process again in 4 days when your bread runs out.

French Bread/Sandwich Rolls

French Bread/Sandwich Rolls

2 TBSP yeast
2 TBSP sugar
4 TBSP melted shortening (I use vegetable oil)
salt
6 cups white flour
Stir the yeast into 2 cups warm water in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes to dissolve. Add sugar, shortening and 1 TBSP salt and stir well. Add 2 cups flour and beat thoroughly. Add 3 more cups flour and mix well. Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead for a few minutes and let rise for 10 minutes. Resume kneading, adding some of the remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky but very elastic and smooth. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm spot until double in bulk - about an hour. Punch down and knead for a few seconds. Shape by rolling and stretching into two long, cylindrical 15 inch loaves and place on a greased cookie sheet lightly sprayed with vegetable spray. Cover and let rise again until double in bulk - about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

Okay - forget putting the dough on cookie sheets. I found a better way as of 8/12/2010.

Change the recipe to this:

3 TBSP yeast

3 TBSP sugar

1 1/2 TBSP salt

3 cups hot water

9 cups flour

Follow directions above for mixing, kneading, rising, etc. For the second rise, divide the dough into 4 equal sections and place 2 loaves in greased 9x13 baking pans. Repeat with remaining 2 loaves. Let rise in the pans and bake as directed above. (Addie - this is what I brought to girl's camp.)

Yield: 2 loaves or 12 sandwich rolls

The process is the same to make the sandwich rolls. I like the sandwich rolls during the school year. I fill them with lunch meat and cheese, wrap well and freeze. I take them out the night before and put in fridge for school lunches. By morning mayo/mustard can be added as well as lettuce and other sandwich toppings.